The Air Force is currently looking at making two moves that will affect their Security Forces in an initiative entitled, “SECURITY FORCES TRAINING FACILITY RE-ALIGNMENT AND MOBILITY LOGDET EQUIPMENT CONSOLIDATION.” Launched before the plan had even been briefed to the entire force, it makes some pretty serious changes.
(Photo USAF, Staff Sgt. Nathan G. Bevier)
The first is that they want to go from 8 Regional Training Centers that provide “pre-deployment training to meet expeditionary combat readiness skills training” to 4. According to Air Force documents these, “Combat skills include non-standard expeditionary ground combat roles.”
The current RTCs:
Air Combat Command – Silver Flag Alpha, Creech AFB, NV
Air Force Materiel Command – Brave Defender, Eglin AFB, FL
Air Mobility Command – Phoenix Warrior, Ft Dix
Air Force Global Strike Command – Camp Guernsey, WY
ANG – 204th SFS Ft Bliss, TX
PACAF – Commando Warrior, Anderson AFB, Guam
USAFE – Creek Defender, Sembach AB, Germany
Generally, troops attend the RTC aligned with their command.
Realigning pre-deployment training is the good part of the plan. Closing some of these facilities makes sense, particularly considering that between the 8 centers, only around 8,700 Airmen are trained annually. Fewer RTCs will save money and help further standardize pre-deployment training for SF. Go for it Air Force!
(Photo USAF, 180th FW PAO)
Unfortunately, the second part of the proposal gives us pause. There is a plan afoot to consolidate all SF LOGDETs at a single facility. You see the Air Force deploys in UTCs which are Unit Type Codes consisting of personnel to accomplish a certain function. Think of them as capabilities sets. The LOGDET is the material half of this equation and is a laundry list of the gear needed to provide that capability.
There are reasons each unit responsible to provide UTCs maintained their own LOGDETs.
1. No single point of failure. If the balloon goes up, some forces may survive initial strikes and still be able to operate with their equipment.
2. It is THEIR equipment. They maintain and can train with the gear to ensure that it is complete and works properly.
3. The commander has responsibility to ensure that his UTCs and LOGDETs are complete and ready. If it’s incomplete or sub-par the commander has to answer for it.
Separating the personnel from their equipment makes no sense. Commanders would no longer be responsible to provide combat ready forces. Furthermore, the LOGDETs would be at the mercy of transportation. TRANSCOM makes miracles happen everyday but ensuring that troops from one base mate up with the right shipping container from another base, at the right place and the right time, especially in the middle of a war zone, is a bit too much to ask.
Furthermore, if LOGDETs are consolidated the next logical step for the shoe clerks is numbers. Imagine this argument, “Well, we don’t need ALL of this gear sitting here at once, after all, we’ve never ever used it all at the same time so we can cut back on how much gear we stockpile” Then, war comes and gear does not work, is incomplete, or entire sets are missing due to funds being diverted to purchase new furniture at HQ. Don’t believe that last one? Just visit an Air Force base.
This is a bad idea and we hope it crawls back under the rock it came from.
I agree…..someone has their beret on a little too tight…
I’m not SF, but I do contracting for them. I agree, bad idea. But. I also was trained at one point as a 92A and I can tell you that from what I have seen of the Squardon I work for is big time overspending on gear. They once bought enough kits to field 5 different flights as well as back office and only used it for bout 8 months. the kits they got were estimated at around 5k a set per airmen. I still think its a bad idea to consolidate supply chains but if units didnt spend and waste so much they might not have even considered it.
can someone remind me again as exactly why the airforce needs gear in the first place??? I though they spent all their money on those awesome BEQ’s they live in.
I got a perfect example of AF thinking/ not thinking. I am part of the 141SFS at Fairchild AFB in Spokane,WA and we have an O3 as the commander for our squadron who used to live here, but now lives in San Antonio TX (home to Lackland AFB), this last year we have used over $4000 in unit funds to re-emberse her airline tickets to fly back and forth for weekend guard drills until she gets O4 then she plans on transfering to TX. I’m sure there has to be another potential commander who lives within a reasonable commuting distance who isn’t about wasting training/gear funds for personal advancement. Can any one say fraud, waste, and abuse????
Report it to your State TAG’s office, and the IG. If that doesnt work, google DOD whistleblower and send the information there.
“jimmyd says:
October 5, 2011 at 3:59 AM
can someone remind me again as exactly why the airforce needs gear in the first place???”
So are you saying CCT/PJ/TACP/EOD/SERE/SWOT dont need gear for their missions? Then theres other branches of service and units that don’t need gear because they don’t do anything as well.
The regular big blue has always been pretty good about wasting funds instead of supporting their squadrons. Instead sending airmen to further their training in their AFSC using the money, they will spend it on $1300 chairs for their conference rooms that they barely use in the first place.
There’s also RTC AFRC Patriot Defender Fort Wolters, TX
thats what happens when you got a female for the commader of “combat” forces. ive met general hertog several times, none of which did she ever acknowledge my salute or return it. she has a way of belittling people who are enlisted and even as an officer with boots on ground she still is hard to get through (from what ive herd from my OIC’s)….glad im out now.
“Then, war comes and gear does not work, is incomplete, or entire sets are missing due to funds being diverted to purchase new furniture at HQ. Don’t believe that last one? Just visit an Air Force base.”
It pains me how true this statement is.
[…] October 5th, 2011 ·BOLO Report Admin·Security Forces (SP)·No Comment The Air Force has some major changes planned for its Defenders, including realigning pre-deployment training and reducing Regional Training Centers and also consolidating all Security Forces LOGDET into one single facility. This would change the way Unit Type Codes (UTCs) deploy and significantly reduce the control each unit has on its own materiel. Nothing could go wrong with that, right? Read more on the SECURITY FORCES TRAINING FACILITY RE-ALIGNMENT AND MOBILITY LOGDET EQUIPMENT CONSOLIDATION. […]
I would think this decision would negatively effect training as well. Units are going to have a hard time getting what they need for good realistic training and will not have the opportunity to become familiar with their gear over time. Sounds to me that Airmen could end up overseas with equipment and gear they’ve never even laid hands on prior to the deployment.
(Photo USAF, 180th FW PAO) – show’s all too clearly why everybody’s talking about camouflage uniforms these days…
The SF equipment UTCs and pax only UTCs are separate. SF decided years ago to separate the UTCs because typically only the manpower and their individual weapons and individual equipment are needed downrange. Equipment UTCs haven’t been deployed by SF eons, so maintaining them at homestation is just an administrative PITA pitfall for compliance inspections. The only UTCs that are being considered for consolidation are the equipment-only UTCs. Homestations will still have some equiment for training, but the AFs deployable SF equipment will be consolidated where it can be properly managed. In these days of UCIs, SAVs, CBT, and all the other time-sucks that exist at Anybase USA, consolidating all the equipment UTCs is smart.
Gen. Hertog isn’t the top cop anymore. It’s Gen. Danny Glover